[News Today] Local strawberries thrown away

[LEAD]
Strawberries, a staple winter fruit, are now entering peak season.

However, in farming communities, much of the harvest is apparently going to waste.

Here's why.

[REPORT]
Farmers throw away strawberries they grew with love and care.

Red, ripe strawberries are left discarded on the ground.

Merchants who purchased strawberries from rural villages are dumping hundreds of kilograms of the fruit every day.

They were contracted to buy the berries, but bakeries, beverage makers and various other companies refused to purchase Korean strawberries, forcing the merchants to dispose of the ripe fruits.

Many farmers choose to plow over the fields since they can't find ways to sell the berries.

Kim Yeong-jung / Strawberry Merchant
We sell them to the companies who use the fruit in their products, but nobody is buying.
We're forced to throw them away.

The price of imported frozen strawberries is around half of locally grown fresh strawberries.

Roughly 16,000 tons of strawberries were imported in 2024, more than a 30 percent on-year increase.

A clear indicator of their growing dominance in local sectors.

Attempts were made to lower the prices of domestic strawberries, but there are limits to what farmers can do to compete with imported strawberries in this manner.

Choi Seon-wu / Korea Rural Economic Institute
The costs of nutrient solutions and harvesting labor are generally higher than in China.

Strawberries are high in demand from now until spring, but farmers stand to incur more losses since there are no effective countermeasures.

Park Hyeong-gyu / Chair, Nonsan Kingsberry Assn.
Once summer fruit season comes, even good strawberries are frozen for processing.
If this trend continues, there'll be huge financial losses.

Some rural areas have added concerns, including figuring out ways to handle the waste generated from discarded fresh strawberries.

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